Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen: Treason, Sedition, Heresy : In which our heroes make a deal with The Empress, see the Hedge change radically under the eye of The Dark Lord, see The Bloodletter let blood, rescue an old ally and victoriously battle Blackmasks. What the bloody hell just happened?! One Sir Gram enters King Henry Carver's dreams witnessing his burning at the end of the Autumnal Coup. He is assualted by Lord Rictiovarus, who throws him out of the dream. Two Our Heroes, intent on getting King Percival back and ending the unlimited power of Sir Rowland Widdershins, go to The Empress and beg her to completely restore Percy from his near-death state. She insists upon discussing the entire affair in a strange location guarded by a strange man. Inside, they offer her their copy of the The Little White Bird, and she quickly accepts . . . a little too quickly for Our Heroes' taste. She offers to meet them at hospital and gives very specific regulations on how the book should be prepared (wrapped in black plastic, wrapped in duct tape, wrapped in brown paper, tied, unmarked). Three Our Heroes try to figure out exactly why the Empress is so keen to get her hands on The Little White Bird at the Ecentric Club when they get into a conversation with Sir Roderick Basset about first editions. He reveals, ignorantly, that he may posses the Illuminated Texts of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He also implies that he tried to bid on ''The Modern Prometheus'' but was stymied by Mrs. Folo's theft of the book. He says that "She" was very cross with him for that, but he fails to explain who "She" was. Four The tradeoff occurs, with The Man For All Seasons taking the book, and The Empress restoring the partially brain dead Percy. She leaves, tired but laughing. Percy now has what seems to be a permanent limp and must walk with a cane. Five Back at The House Our Heroes find that the Hedge is radically changed: The Fog is now so thick that it cannot be seen through for more than a few feet. The House is also surrounded by the animated corpses of the Imperial dead from Lowgate. Nellie works to reinforce the fences around the house, and Our Heroes try to kill a cowled figure standing behind them. Six Gram goes to call Queen Edane and is ordered to find out exactly why Ben Ashmore was arrested by Queen Mary. Mary has been issuing a series of warrents through Sir Rowland, who has assumed fully the role of secret police head. Edane tells Gram to "fix it" immediately. Percy wants Sir Rowland recalled immediately and writes Mary a letter to that effect. Seven At the Cavern, Gram sees that Mary has been interrogating large numbers of Imperial citizenry. She tortured Ben Ashmore and seemingly had his left hand cut off. Gram asks to see his warrant and the warrant for all other arrested Spring Courtiers. Mary agrees but warns Gram that most of them have willingly confessed to their crimes, and the Charter grants her carte blanche to go after criminals. A disturbed Gram leaves as they drag The Crone into the chamber, herself arrested for treason. Eight Our Heroes contact Mr. Black, who suggests that Mary's scheduled executions might not have anything to do with the victims, but might have everything to do with The Membership Committee. He (as Duke Mortimer) has been followed all day, and he assumes the other members of the committee have as well. He claims that Mary has for many years been trying to find out the secret of 311 and Sir Rowland has been fairly insistent that he be told exactly how the whole process works. Black thinks that they want to kill specific people to see how the Membership Committee replaces the missing. He could have Sir Rowland and/or Queen Mary killed, but it might have terrible repercussions. Black will give them forty-eight hours to find an alternate plan before he takes action himself. Nine Our Heroes decide to talk to The Man for All Seasons who is the greatest living (?) expert on the Charter since it has not actually existed in decades. They head to the ruins of The Clockwork Palace to try to find him, only to discover the Palace deserted. They search his office, finding jars of stale purifying blood and a small safe. Nellie picks the lock and sees a book named The Diary of Mrs.Thistle: Sep.-Dec. 1888. The American Woman suddenly appears (speaking in a posh English accent) and warns them that the book may be booby trapped and that they don't want to read it anyway. She implies that the greater power holding The Punished in line is failing, allowing her to wander to locations to which she's not normally bound. She quickly disappears. Ten Searching the rest of the building the group locates the Man for All Seasons in a disturbing man-bat form. After a brief fight, he is restrained and returns to his mortal state. He says from his knowledge the Charter gives the Queen every right to do what she is doing, pursuant to the tacit endorsement of the Imperator of Roses. Since Empress Victoria is sleeping off Percy's healing, she has not the will to oppose Mary's power grab. Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen The World Famous London Daily Mirror For other articles see- London Daily Mirror ''Headline yet to be written'' Questions... Questions that Need Some Form Of Written Response For other questions see- The Master Question List * Category:Book Three